[3] However, after the Compromise of 1867, the government encouraged Magyarization and, by the end of World War I, Bratislava was predominantly made up of German and Hungarian speakers, with Slovaks as the largest minority.
In addition, as Bratislava since 1918 has enlarged its territory several times, a more accurate assessment of early demographics might take into account the formerly independent communities (Dúbravka, Lamač, Rača, etc.
Moreover, residents of mixed origin tended to identify with the dominant political group, such as Hungarian before 1918, and Slovak after 1918; that is, what would be the most suitable or least dangerous identity.
[5] This was part of a postwar population transfer approved by the Allies, with the thought of reducing future tensions.
The stripping of Slovak citizenship from the Hungarian and German ethnics also forced the minorities to leave the city.
[3] By the mid-1970s, it had surpassed Brno as the second-largest city of Czechoslovakia, and reached one-third the size of Prague, the capital.
[citation needed] By the late 2010s, Bratislava became an increasingly popular immigration destination, predominantly from Balkans and former USSR countries.
[6] The immigrant population has been further boosted in 2022 by the refugees fleeing the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, around 11,000 of whom settled in Bratislava.